Destruction Warlock DPS Spell Summary — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Destruction Warlock Spell Summary

If you are new to the Destruction Specialization, this is a great place to start reading and begin breaking down the key spells that hold together this specialization. On this page we will discuss what abilities your specialization uses, how they influence gameplay and resource generation, and the ways they interact with each other and your cooldowns. If you have some experience with Destruction already, it is recommended you skip over this section and move on to the rest of the guide.

2. Main Resources for Destruction Warlock

Soul Shards are the main resource of Destruction Warlocks. Each Soul shard is made up of 10 Soul Shard Fragments. Soul Shards and Fragments are generated by your filler spells and your DoT effect, and they can be spent on an extremely powerful nuke or an AoE damage over time effect. You can have a maximum of 5 Soul Shards (50 Soul Shard Fragments).

Mana is a secondary resource for Destruction Warlocks. Your main spells do not cost very much Mana to cast, and will never threaten your Mana pool. Utility spells, such as Demonic Gateway, and Crowd Control abilities, such as Fear, cost relatively more Mana than ever before, so be wary about using them too liberally.

3. Basic Abilities for Destruction Warlock

3.1. Soul Shard Generating Abilities

Immolate is a damage over time spell that deals very high damage. It generates a Soul Shard Fragment when it ticks and additional Fragment on critical strikes. This should be kept applied at all times to targets who will live for 5 seconds or more.

Conflagrate is an instant cast spell with 2 charges. It generates 5 Soul Shard Fragments on cast, and the cooldown of the charges is reduced by Haste rating. It also reduces the cast time of Incinerate and Chaos Bolt by 30% for 10 seconds for each charge used. This should be cast on cooldown for maximum Soul Shard generation.

Incinerate is your main filler. This should be cast when the previous 3 spells are unavailable or already active on your target. Incinerate generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment on hits and 2 Soul Shard Fragments on criticals.

3.2. Soul Shard Consuming Abilities

Chaos Bolt consumes 2 Soul Shards and nukes the target for heavy damage. This damage is always a Critical Hit, and Chaos Bolt does increased damage (1% damage per 1% crit) based on your Critical Strike rating. This should be cast when you have Soul Shards available and, ideally, an active damage cooldown or proc.

Rain of Fire consumes 3 Soul Shards and deals Fire damage in an area, over a period of 8 seconds (reduced by Haste).

4. Cooldowns for Destruction Warlock

4.1. Damage Cooldowns for Destruction Warlock

Summon Infernal is our primary damage cooldown. The Infernal is a targeted ability that deals Fire damage and stuns within an AoE. Upon landing, the Infernal generates 1 Soul Shard Fragment every 0.5 seconds for the player. It deals damage every 2 seconds to all nearby targets, scaling with Haste. Infernal lasts 30 seconds and has a 3 minute cooldown period.

Havoc is a 10-second debuff that can be applied once every 30 seconds. During the duration of Havoc, all your single target spells cast will also be copied to the Havoc target. Requires at least 2 targets to work.

4.2. Defensive Cooldowns and Tools for Destruction Warlock

Unending Resolve reduces damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. Additionally, you are also immune to interrupt and silence effects for the duration. Unending Resolve has a baseline cooldown of 3 minutes.

Soul Leech grants all single target damage done an absorption shield for 8% of damage dealt, up to a maximum of 10% of maximum player health.

Demonic Gateway creates two points which players can travel between by interacting with. Players may only use the gateway once every 90 seconds.